HOBART OLYMPIC 0-2 UNIVERSITY
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Hobart Olympic have lost form completely and this latest humiliation at the hands of the bottom side must have been hard to swallow.
Indeed, coach Farrell Shaw was not up to speaking to the media after the match.
How they could have done with the diminutive but nippy Michael Bulis, who was in Melbourne, and captain Peter Tsakiris, who was recovering from an operation on his fingers.
University could have tripled their score, but poor finishing let them down.
The visitors played a fine counter-attacking game which provided them with at least half a dozen scoring opportunities, but they squandered all but two.
Substitute Edward Opira was put through on several occasions with only the goalkeeper to beat after long balls out of defence, but he only took advantage of one.
The man he replaced, Rory McCallum, normally a goalkeeper but now a striker, got into some good positions, but he blazed wide from the left when presented with his best chance.
Olympic had two long-range chances in the second half, but Emmanuel Tsakiris and Carl Larzabal fired high over the bar.
Larzabal also sent one shot low and just wide of the far post.
Olympic’s best chance came in the first half from Robert Lebski, but Hamish Peacock produced a brilliant save, diving to his left and turning the ball wide for a corner.
Lebski was booked just after the half-time whistle went for saying something to the referee, Mr Collins.
University took the lead in the 12th minute after a clinical build-up from defence. Nigel Blundell then gained possession on the left and squared the ball inside for Alexis Bull to stroke past Dmitri Nester.
Ten minutes before the break, Richard Delara wasted a good opportunity for the Students when he shot high over the bar.
Four minutes after the resumption, Bull should have made it 2-0 when he was put through and had only the goalkeeper to beat, but Nester came to the rescue and saved.
In the 59th minute, a high cross from the left saw Bull outjump Nester, but his glancing header went wide of the far post.
Opira’s speed troubled the Olympic defence the minute he came on and, in the 72nd minute, he shot wide after breaking through when he should really have hit the target.
He was then thwarted again by Nester when put through by a clever ball out of defence.
In the 82nd minute, a long ball again found Opira and he zoomed past Youssef Mohamad and lifted the ball cleverly over Nester to make the game safe at 2-0.
The win put University only 5 points behind Olympic on the Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League ladder.
University may have turned a corner tonight, but they may find it's a dead-end street as they meet league-leaders Tilford Zebras at KGV Park on Monday.
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- Hobart Olympic’s assistant coach, Glenn McNeill, said:
“Obviously, we’re very disappointed.
“All we wanted was for the players to get their heads up and play the first option, but they were just holding on to it a bit too long really.
“To be honest, they were very good at getting players behind the ball and that made it very difficult for us.”
- University’s stand-in coach, Les Richardson, said:
“I thought the boys came out tonight and played really well.
“We kept our structure, we looked for the passes a lot better, and up forward we were more active.
“In closing down, our backs did extremely well and our wingers did well to keep the ball.
“We let them play at us and we held our positions and I think that was the main reason we won.
“We held out shape and our positions.”
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Hobart Olympic: Nester - Lebski, Tsimiklis, Mohamad (Pinkus 82), Saric - E Tsakiris, Richardson, Larzabal, C Tsakiris - M Hedge, Kunwar (Percy 70) (Substitutes not used: A Hedge, Plomaritis)
Booked: Lebski, Richardson, Larzabal
University: Peacock - Hewson, Andrews, Fletcher, Madden - Blundell, Bones, Delara (Griffiths 74), Bull - Hindmarsh (Proud 80), McCallum (Opira 67) (Substitute not used: Piesse)
Booked: Delara, Bull
Goals: Bull 12, Opira 82
Att: 73
Ref: S Collins
9 comments:
Thanks Walter!
olympic only have themselves to blame, on the odd occasion they got into good position with the ball there was no support and no runners .What was Shaw thinking in taking off dipper? feed him in behind the defenders and let his pace do the rest ,but time and time again he had to fight back to the middle from out wide and he is not up to a physical contest.
Hope they like div 1 cause that is were they are headed after tonight's performance i cant see them winning another game. I can however see uni getting the 6 points they now need to expel olympic from the top flight.
well said benchie.How quickly the mighty have fallen in Olympic's case.Here is a club that just two years ago was on its way up, had recruited well in he past 4-5 years, was performing well in all 3 senior grades and had finally managed to find a coach who the players liked and respected.Fast forward to today and you have a club in utter disarray.11 nil loss to the zebras, 6 nil to South, and just to confirm the depths of dispear a 2 nil loss to the bottom side. Add to this a complete lack of player and official discipline and is it any wonder that one of the former powerhouse clubs of Tasmanian football is a shambles.According to my olympic contacts it is so bad that there is even internal bickering between club officials, players and the club trainer.Many past players and longterm supporters of the club are absolutely disgusted with where the club finds itself and there are rumblings that there may be a move to remove the current club officials who for all intensive purposes are a collection of soccer nobodies.As one Olympic supporter stated, our president's only qualifications at a soccer level is to collect gate fees at home games and cook sausages. Many supporters extremely angry at losing a great player in Kanakaris who left the club due to its unprofessionalism.Interesting times ahead for Olympic
Hello Walter and thank you for your updates. Even though I’m no longer living in Tassie I do love keeping up with what’s going on down there.
I must voice my disappointment on Olympics efforts in the season so far. Let’s hope the lads can lift over the next few months and regain some confidence to at least finish the rest off play with a bit of class. Farrell does his best with what he has to work with and it amazes me that when a club is doing poorly regardless of circumstances the knockers come out.
Hope all is well with you Walter, and keep up the good work mate.
Sad day indeed, Is it possible to see Olympic relegated??? They are a club that has always had internal problems, and at the same time has always offered so much. Let's hope the powers to be at the club start looking at the club as the future for attached families and communities and not get hung up in the politics that is dragging it down.
A pity the councils closed grounds until Tuesday, as I think most grounds would have been capable of having games tomorrow.
FFT aren't really capable of making any decent decisions, or having any foresight, so it'll be interesting to see what they plan on doing with the extra 2 games for most Premier League teams (nevermind the socials etc.)!Particularly when they have the Clarence v Uni game currently set for October 15th... over a month after the Final 4 ends! That says it all really when it's been about a month after the postponed game, so in the hopeful case that it's a temporary date... they still actually can't find/announce a solution within a month!
Good points Ril. I thought the 'final four' thing had long been dead and buried. Years ago. Thankfully.
As you quite rightly observe, with the Clarence v Uni game a month later how are the 'final four' to be decided?
Anyone know if there's money involved in winning this stupid thing, or do the FFT just get more gate money?
tasblue- bringing back finals football to the league was one of the best things FFT has done in a long while. In Australia, in every sport both the players and the fans love finals football. It brings the crowds and the players love it.
FFT should however play a home and away finals series rather than everygame at KGV, the financial benefit from making finals should fall to the clubs not FFT.
Those from the state league days would love to see a final series run like the AFL, with the top 4 from both the north and south playing for the "State Championship".
Even in the A-League with the "Premiership" and "Championship", everyone only cares about the Championship. We are not based in Europe, the champion team from the year should be the team that wins the championship, not the league.
Well done FFT, please continue to update our game in this state to fall in line with our national competition, the A-League.
And bring in a statewide finals series!!!
NeTwo Comments .
In the days of the previous final series FFT ran the gate , paid the bills and divided what was left between the participants dependent on finishing positions .
Neutral watch the press or talk to a Club Prsident your dreams may come true.
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